Iowa State Closes Out 2014 at Kansas

AMES, Iowa - The Iowa State softball team will wrap up the 2014 season with a three-game series at Kansas, beginning Friday at 5 p.m. at Arrocha Ballpark in Lawrence. Saturday's game will take place at 2 p.m., and the Sunday sereis and season finale will be at noon.

There will be no live video for Friday's game. Saturday and Sunday's games will be shown live on ESPN3.com. Access to live programming on ESPN3 is available at no additional cost to fans with subscriptions to participating high speed internet service providers. Click here to view a complete list of participating providers. ESPN3 is also available at no cost to U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel on computers connected to on-campus educational networks and on-base military networks. For more information about ESPN3, click here.

Live stats for all three games will be provided by kuathletics.com, and can be accessed here. Assistant Director for Athletics Communications Patrick Tarbox will host a live blog during all three games that can be accessed here.

Cyclone Headlines

Iowa State wraps up the 2014 season this weekend when the Cyclones take on Kansas in a Big 12 series in Lawrence. The first game will be Friday at 5 p.m. followed by games on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at noon.

The Cyclones played their final home game on Tuesday, picking up a 6-4 win over Drake.

Brittany Gomez continues to be one of the most prolific lead-off hitters in the country, ranking sixth in the Big 12 with her .391 batting average. Gomez has 70 hits on the season, marking the second-70+ hit season in Iowa State history. She is in pursuit of Jenny Condon’s single-season hits record of 77 set back in 1988.

During Iowa State’s doubleheader against Northern Illinois, Gomez became Iowa State’s all-time leader in career stolen bases. The sophomore, now with 53 steals to her name in her career, beat the record of 48 previously held by Adi Blackmon (2000-03). Gomez’s 22 steals in 2014 puts her fifth in the Big 12.

Against Drake back in April, Gomez became the first player in ISU history to record two seasons with at least 20 stolen bases.

Rachel Hartman has been on a tear for Iowa State in the last month. In ISU’s last 16 games, Hartman is hitting .500 with 24 hits, 15 RBIs, 12 runs, eight doubles and two home runs. Hartman’s season batting average of .389 ranks sixth in the Big 12.

Lexi Slater came into 2014 with a career batting average of .248 in her first two seasons as a Cyclone. This year, the junior has become one of Iowa State’s biggest batting threats, hitting .354 with a .620 slugging percentage. She leads the Big 12 with an ISU-record-tying 16 doubles in 2014. Her eight home runs this season is the most in a single season in Slater’s career.

For the first time in school history, Iowa State has six players with at least 50 hits (Gomez, Hartman, Slater, Aly Cappaert, Sarah Hawryluk and Jorden Spendlove). Prior to this season, ISU never had five players with at least 50 hits in the same season. The sextet has led ISU to a school-record 451 hits on the season and a school-record .325 batting average, among the top-20 in the NCAA.